How to play at Glastonbury 2016

Even with the popularity of boutique festivals, Glastonbury has got to be the ultimate UK music festival to play at. With previous performers including Radiohead, the Rolling Stones, Jay-Z, Metallica, Blur, and the late, great David Bowie, you’d be in pretty good company.

But surely it’s impossible to play unless you’re a big signed act, no?

No!

If you’ve ever wondered how to play at Glastonbury, you need to have a look into the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition. The idea of this is to give new acts of any genre the chance to play on one of the main stages. What’s more, the winners will not only get to fulfil a childhood dream (and get to go to an expensive festival for free), but will also be given up to £5,000 to develop their act. Could come in handy!

To enter, all you need to do is head over to the Emerging Talent Competition entry page, and supply your details and a link to a track on Soundcloud and a live performance on Youtube (which can have been recorded at home if you don’t have any stage footage).

Note that the competition entry page is only open until 25th January!

If you manage to make it onto the shortlist of 8 acts, you’ll be asked to perform at the finals in April at the Pilton Working Men’s Club (sounds glamorous). The good news is that, if you get to that stage, you’re pretty likely to be invited to play at the festival even if you don’t win the cash (in both 2014 and 2015, all eight of the finalists were offered slots at that year’s Festival).